I just want to start off by saying that "Through me you enter into the City of Woes" would make an EXCELLENT tramp stamp. Jump on it!

Being that I am an atheist living in the "Bible Belt," I was certain that reading this would lead to some sort of goodreads tirade, which can at times feel about as good as vomiting up a sour stomach or...you know...doing other stuff like shit that ladies don't do. However, I was from the outset hypnotized by Dante's très Baudelaire-esque-grotesque imagery and over More...

For the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament, The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh versus The Divine Comedy

(All citations from the Inferno are from the Longfellow translation.)

To You

Paw in paw we come
Pooh and the Bouncer
To lay this review in your lap.
Give us one of those sultry little smiles
and say you're surprised!
Say you can't get over it!
Say it's just what you've always wanted
and it's even more fun than a day at the spa
(because, let's face it, hunny honey, on my salary
I couldn' More...

The Inferno for Dummies: A Verse Summary

Some Italians I hate are dead. Yay.
Also, in hell. God rocks without a doubt.
Dead Virgil saved me when I lost my way,

Protected me from liars, sodomites,
And held bass-ackward simonists at bay,
As well as minotaurs and heads that bite.

The damned expound, are cleaved; they stink and shout.
At length, we scaled corrupted Satan's bits.
My foes are damned, while I have clambered out.

the only place i know in literature where saying "nice shoes" or "that's a lovely tattoo of a water buffalo on your forehead" or "you look especially wonderful in red rayon" but not meaning it is worse than murdering the entire population of stevens point, wi, (25,056 as of the last census) in an attempt to become emperor of the dairy state--a bitter guy sticks voodoo pins in everyone against whom he had an imagined or real gripe--if the bitter guy's vision is reality, all we can do is grab our More...

4 Reasons to Read Dante's Inferno

1. To finally figure out the difference between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Dante was a Guelph.

2. To discover why Constantine made his famous donation.

3. To learn some new and ingenious ways to torture your enemies. Dante is very imaginative in this regard.

4. To find out what happened to Potiphar's wife, Mohammed, Ulysses, Atilla the Hun, Cleopatra, and Helen of Troy. We meet them all in The Inferno.

I recommend Dorothy Sayers' translation because of the exce More...

As though I could really give Dante anything but five stars? Seriously, The Inferno in general and this edition in particular is a great read. Anthony Esolen does a great job of not only placing the book in its historical context (almost anyone who can write numbers can do that), but also of helping the reader to appreciate and to almost step inside of the world-view held by Dante himself. This is accomplished both through the use of copious informative endnotes and through the inclusion at the More...

I could kiss the professor of my Concepts of Punishment course at CAL for making me read this book. I had no idea at the time how much I would think about it during my lifetime. I was just thinking about the lovers in the second circle today, almost ten years after I first read it.

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT HOW HELL IS GONNA SUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

As a literature minor, I know that I'm supposed to take great joy in dissecting and analyzing a great work of literature such as The Inferno, but I didn't really enjoy this book all that much.

I found way too much of the storyline to be repetitive and drawn out for two long. The first half or so of the story is basically traveling from one circle of Hell to another, finding out what the sin and the punishment for the sin in that area is, meeting and talking with one or two of the sinners and rel More...

I'm not sure where the copy of the book came from. The copyright is one year before I was born, but I don't remember picking it up in a used book store. But I guess that's neither here nor there.

I wish I could honestly check off 5 stars and say that my eyes were opened. That I really felt transformed by having read this classic of literature and that I will make it point to re-read it every year on the anniversary of my having discovered the error of my ways in not reading it at age 5.

But I can' More...

The other day, in the comment thread to her review of The Aeneid, Meredith called The Divine Comedy "lame": specifically, she objected to the fact that Dante put all the people he didn't like in Hell. Well, Meredith, you're perfectly welcome to your opinions - but I'm half Italian, and I've been politely informed that if I don't respond in some way I'm likely to wake up some morning and find a horse's head lying next to me. So here goes.

I actually have two separate defenses. First, let's conside More...

دلوقتى انا عارفة انى قدام قطعه من روائع الادب الايطالى ويمكن لو قارنت بأدبيات العصر اللى هو تابع ليها هيكون فعلا ملحمة...لكن انا هاحكم هنا حكم منطقى من وجهه نظرى وبس:
اهم حاجة هاتلفت النظر هى عدم تناسق الاّثام مع العقوبات.فمثلا

1- دانتى وضع السلبيين الذين لم يفعلوا خير ولا شر فى مقدمة الجحيم بينما اللى اتولدوا قبل المسيحية او ماتوا اطفال ولم يتم تعميدهم دول موجودين فى اللمبو الحلقة الاولى...واعتقد ان المنطق يقول العكس..خصوصا انه وضح ان لا امل لهم فى المطهر او الخلاص يعنى تواجد بشكل ابدى بلا راحة ف More...

در نیمه راه زندگانی، خویشتن را در جنگلی تاریک یافتم، زیرا راه راست را گم کرده بودم
و چه دشوار است وصف این جنگل وحشی و سخت انبوه، که یادش ترس را در دل بیدار می کند
چنان تلخ است که مرگ جز اندکی از آن تلخ تر نیست، اما من، برای وصف صفایی که در این جنگل یافتم، از دگر چیزهایی که در آن جستم سخن خواهم گفت
درست نمیتوانم گفت که چگونه پای بدان نهادم، زیرا هنگامی که شاهراه را ترک گفتم سخت خواب آلوده بودم
قسمتی از سرود اول دوزخ

In the damp fog of summer, Dante guides me take a bite out of life. Che magnifico docente! This translation is especially fine, according to Ralph Williams, professor emeritus at University of Michigan and my idol for his boundless love of life. I endorse this translation for a few reasons:

- modernized Italian on the facing page. Play with the Italian: try reading it aloud, or just seek out specific passages and words.

- endnotes following each canto. Much better than footnotes at the bottom of e More...

Political slander & religious dogma at its highest and most poetic.

The Trinity; The Poet, The Pilgrim, & The Eternal, Paternal Guide ascend & descend through the failing state that is Hell. La Commedia is begun by Inferno, which is succeeded by Purgatorio & brought to a proper close with the forever looming Paradiso. I must admit, despite the seemingly abhorrent morality displayed in the 1st installment Inferno is, more so, however, was, intensely epic in its ambit.

La Commedia wa More...

در سراسر این کتاب غالباً شاعر مطلبی مشروح را در یک یا دو جمله خلاصه کرده و این ایجاز در عین آنکه قدرت و تسلط عجیب او را در زبان و نظم می‌رساند، اثر وی را بصورت یکی از پیچیده‌ترین آثار ادبی جهان در آورده است.
بسیاری از اشعار «کمدی الهی » امروز در ایتالیا و اروپا ضرب المثل شده‌اند، و درست به همان صورت که ما به هر مناسبت از حافظ و سعدی نقل قول می‌کنیم در ایتالیا از کمدی الهی شاهد می‌آورند. بعضی از این اشعار از ایتالیا فراتر رفته و صورت بین‌المللی پیدا کرده‌اند و از آن جمله می‌توان شعر بسیار معروفی ر More...

This is, and probably will remain, a work in progress. Recommendations for others who deserve their own place in hell are welcome.

Top 40 radio DJs:

Now bodiless entities that only have their senses of hearing intact, they drift through the airwaves listening to the MOST IRRITATING SONG they ever broadcast. Over and over and over again. For all of eternity.
"Oh, don't tell my heart / my achy breaky heart"
"I'm a barbie girl / in a barbie world"
"My hump my hump my hump, my lovely lady lumps!"


The More...

What a joy to read literature that is not only well executed, but beautiful in spirit! Dante's work is one of the pillars of western literature, and justly so. Conceived and executed in a poetical form called "terza rima" and functioning on multiple levels of meaning simultaneously, the three books of the "Commedia" are a microcosm of human spiritual life. Care is lavished on every detail from the geography to the astronomy and everything in between. It is a monumental achievement, encompassing More...

So I finally read the Inferno. It gets four stars due to its epic scope and talent. It wasn't boring, but any book like this is a struggle when taken out of the classroom setting and left up to its own presentation. Thankfully I read a good Barnes & Noble Classics version that had introductory segments and, more importantly, a thorough endnotes section that explains details and expounds upon Longfellow's translation.

I can see why the series (of which Inferno is just the first part) is called More...

I just finished reading this book yesterday and will be interviewing Pinsky today. The interview will be available at:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/2...

This is seriously the best translation of The Inferno that I can imagine. Of course, I don't know Italian, so I can't be 100% sure, but it is much better than the other translations of which I have read excerpts. Pinsky stays in the terza rima form, which Dante invented, but relies on slant or near rhyme throughout so that the poem sounds More...

When a student does not like a book they will often say they cannot "relate" to it. This is a poem I cannot relate to at all. I can roll with Dante when he is lost in the dark word. As soon as he enters the Inferno, however, the work baffles me. I cannot understand the justice of eternal damnation. I cannot understand why the greatest minds of antiquity exist without hope. I cannot understand how how the pilgrim forgets all about Virgil as soon as he meets Beatrice on the top of Mount Purgatory. More...

This is a less accurate but wonderfully written vernacular translation of Dante's Inferno. Carson focused on recreating the feel of the poem rather than reproducing Dante's exact words. This is a great version for casual readers who find most translations too stuffy or formal. Do NOT choose it if you need to do anything serious with the work, as many allusions, details, and shades of meaning have been lost.

I had the pleasure of hearing Carson read some excerpts when this volume was first release More...

Another failed attempt at poetry appreciation comes to a close. I did not finish the whole book - I guess I am stuck somewhere in the middle of Hell and can't get out!

Under duress, the threat of severe punishment or a poor grade in an English class, I am sure I could have finished and responded well to inquiries. But, alas, this pursuit was for "pleasure" and Dante's Inferno brought none.

I had a hard time rating this book. While the writing style itself was frankly pompous and arrogant, the concept itself was fantastical. A pupil beng allowed a tour of hell?It took me quite a while to plod through it and while I'm glad I read it, I couldn't help but breathe a huge sigh of relief when I was finally able to close and reshelf this book.

All in all it was pretty depressing, if Dante actually knew the criteria to land one in hell, I don't know many people who are not going there. So I More...

Grotesque, intense, confusing...

Hell is a very exciting place. While I'm sure a huge portion of it was over my head and I should reread it, I still managed to understand basically what was going on.

I liked how you could sense a sort of mockery in parts of it. The popes and religious figures who were cast down in Hell.

The punishments matching the sin was fantastic! The suicides losing their bodies, the fortune tellers seeing only behind them forever, those who killed in anger boiling in a river o More...

It's the story of a spiritual journey taken by man that at the end leads to heaven. I just read inferno which is the first part of THE DIVINE COMEDY. It was not easy to read it because it's not pleasant to imagine inferno and how it look likes. it's disgusting I say. however the translation was quite amazing and there were also footnotes that were a great help in understanding the text.
In life, I have always tried to imagine and believe in God as a merciful protector . some scenes in the text we More...

SUMMARY: Long narrative poem originally titled Commedia (about 1555 printed as La divina commedia) written about 1310-14 by Dante. The work is divided into three major sections--Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso--which trace the journey of a man from darkness and error to the revelation of the divine light, culminating in the beatific vision of God. It is usually held to be one of the world's greatest works of literature. The plot of The Divine Comedy is simple: a man is miraculously enabled to More...

Dante wakes up in cold dark forest, and realizes that he has strayed away from the right path. He tries to find his way back, but fails. he meets Virgil a Roman poet who in the story is a symbol of human reason. Virgil explains to Dante that he has been sent by divine powers in heaven to show him the way. But it won't be easy the will have to go through hell, purgatory and Heaven. The inferno (hell in Italian) describes his passage through and its many circles.

The Divine comedy is a series of 3 More...

This is an excellent book, an 'autobiography' of sorts about the Dante's trip through Hell. There is much imagery and detail in the descriptions of the punishments. As well, it clearly gives a feel of the atmosphere of Hell, nothing but pain, sorrow, eternal death, and, most of all, hopelessness. The entire book was clearly well written and thought out. It sends a clear and loud warning to all in error, both in the time it was written and now. Whether this is actually what Hell is like or not, D More...